Drug Abuse Prevention
Drug abuse prevention efforts are more needed today than they were in the past because the substances used now are many times more addictive and more potent than ever before. However, defining "drugs," "drug abuse" and "drug prevention" has implications for the planning, implementation and evaluation of drug abuse prevention efforts. In order to understand the potential abuse that drugs have, it is very important to understand what drugs are.

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), a psychoactive substance is something that people take to feel better, think differently or behave in other way. Some of these substances are typically called 'Drugs'. Substances like tobacco and alcohol are known to be hazardous but are not conventionally referred to as drugs. The potency, availability and caustic potential of drugs that are now consumed for purely recreational purposes is termed as a modern phenomenon.

Dual Nature of Drugs
Since some psychotic substances can produce positive effects, including pain relief, feelings of gratification, euphoria or serenity, the regulation of physical and psychological disorders, thus people have been using it for recreational, religious and curative purposes for hundreds of years.

Unfortunately, the excessive use of psychoactive substances can also cause quite negative effects, including individuals and society ultimately immediately and over the long term. Due to this duality of effects, UNODC and other experts now define 'drugs' safely as all psychoactive substances, including tobacco, alcohol, medications and inhalants, which are used without medical supervision just to change the way a person behaves or thinks, feels for no reason but just 'to have fun'.

Also, drug abuse has become a global problem that affects not only developing countries but also developed countries in the same way. In addition, during the last two decades or so, countries all over the world have undergone an alarming rise in the incidence of drug use/abuse among youth. Out of the most serious aspects of the problem of drug abuse today is the link between drugs and HIV/AIDS.

Thus drug use causes harm to both the individual users and society as a whole, making it indispensable to take strong measures against this illness. 'Drug abuse prevention' thus includes all efforts to tone down the dangers associated with the excessive use of these substances. Three strategies have been taken into consideration and more steps are being taken to implement them as soon as possible.

Demand reduction strategies aim to reduce the desire and preparedness to use drugs and thus may include abstinence-oriented strategies.
Supply reduction strategies aim to disrupt the production and supply of illicit drugs as well as reduce the access and provision of legal drugs in certain contexts. It may include seminars and lectures about measures taken to limit the use, possession and sale of illicit drugs on school premises.

Harm-reduction strategies aim to reduce the impact of drug-related activities and drug use on individuals and communities.
In short, the unpleasant individual and social consequences of drug consumption are simply too serious and too many to ignore. However, in the broadest terms, efforts to limit drug use must be made because drugs affects the ability of people adversely to act as conscious and free beings, capable of taking action to fulfill their needs and contribute optimistically to society.